Here’s What to Look for in a Shopify Plus Partner

There are a lot of great Shopify Plus partners. In fact, we’d say they they are all great. Shopify invests a lot in vetting its Plus partners. There are several requirements from experience to certifications to become a Shopify Plus partner. In fact, there are only about 40 certified Shopify Plus partners in the US, of which we are proud to be one.

We have worked with almost every ecommerce platform out there, having been working in ecommerce for decades. And although we are platform agnostic, Shopify Plus accounts for the majority of our business and in our opinion is the best platform out there for most ecommerce businesses.

Shopify Plus enables large enterprises to grow and market with agility and speed, all while having lower overhead costs than any enterprise ecommerce solution of the past. And that, my friends, is hard to beat.

How do you choose a Shopify Plus Partner?

1) Shopify Plus Partners vs. Shopify Experts

First, don’t confuse Shopify Plus partners with general Shopify experts. As we mentioned above, Shopify Plus partners are Shopify’s certified enterprise partners that have gone through an intense vetting process and there are only a few dozen in the US. Shopify experts, on the other hand, don’t undergo any certification or vetting process and there are a couple hundred thousand in the US.

So if you are an enterprise looking for a Shopify partner, make sure that you are on the Shopify Plus site looking at their Plus Partner Directory. Within this group then, when it comes to choosing a certified Shopify Plus partner, you really can’t go wrong as far as quality.

2) Search for an Area of Expertise Fit

The Shopify Plus partners are a tight knit group. We are friends with most other Shopify Plus partners and often work together or refer business to one another. We are all really good at what we do, but we specialize in different areas.

The key is to find one that specializes in what you need.

Are you looking for a growth and marketing partner, like us? Or do you need help with backend integrations or fulfillment solutions?

Differentiating each Shopify Plus partners’ specific areas of expertise may not be easy when you look at the partner directory, so reach out to a few companies to discuss your needs with them. Or you can ask Shopify Plus for a referral. Their partner managers know each Shopify Plus partners’ skills and areas of expertise inside and out so they will point you in the right direction based on your specific needs.

Shopify Plus Partners, in general, are not starving for business. They will be honest with you about what their skills are and if you are not a good fit for their business, they will refer you to another Shopify Plus Partner that will better suit your needs. We do this all the time.

3) Search for a Personality Fit

There are probably a handful of Plus Partners that will match your specific needs, so the next step is to make sure there is a good personality fit. Not all Shopify Plus Partners work the same. We look for businesses that truly want to partner with us to take their businesses to the next level. We typically work with one of two types of companies. The first are hyper growth brands that are young companies experiencing a period of high growth. The second are traditional retail brands that need to improve and streamline their ecommerce businesses. With these companies we inject speed and relevance into how they are doing ecommerce to get them to a new level of growth.

Find a Shopify Plus partner that fits with your business stage, culture, and your work style for the best results.

4) Check for a Budget Fit

Finally, make sure that your budget expectations are in line with the Shopify Plus partner that you’d like to work with. Your investment in your ecommerce store will depend on your stage of business. Talk openly with your potential partners to determine what a smart spend is for you at this point.

Just remember, you will pay more for experience. If you are a very high dollar store, there are higher stakes with any changes to your ecommerce experience, so you will want to pay more to work with a partner that has experience with that level of business. This is for your benefit.

Look at it this way. You would be fine with a recently licensed teenage driver taking you around in a golf cart (or maybe even around the neighborhood in your brand new convertible if you like to live on the edge). But when you’re flying across the Atlantic, you wouldn’t trust this same teenager that just got his pilot license. You’d gladly pay top dollar for an experienced pilot. The same should be true for your ecommerce store. When the risk is higher, you pay more for experience and security.